Fantasia 2000

Walt Disney Pictures; G; 75 minutes

Release:

5/00

Cast:

Steve Martin, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones

Fantasia 2000, like it's 60-year-old predecessor, combines well-known classical music excerpts to seven animation shorts. It even includes the original "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment. 1940s Fantasia brought innovation under its wing: it was the first movie with a stereo soundtrack, unabashedly abstract for its time and production company. So Fantasia 2000 arrives as retread, with similar themes of good and evil and cycles of growth, albeit pitched towards a more upbeat tune. For the many children who haven't yet seen the original, Fantasia 2000 is a more than adequate replacement since it departs little from the established formula.

The cast of introducers: Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, Penn and Teller, etc., is more distracting than amusing, far cry from a shadowed, backlit orchestra.